Pine Melody

<p>Swerving to avoid a deer on a dark Wisconsin highway in early summer 22-year old Gabe lost control of the car. His 29-year old brother Jonah singing along with him as he drove absorbed the full force of the impact with an oncoming pick-up driven by the Chief of a First Nation. The crash left Jonah with severe traumatic brain injury Gabe with a broken femur and soil samples meticulously gathered for Jonah's graduate research project on agroforestry strewn across the highway.</p><p></p><p>As General Counsel for a Philadelphia medical center I was competent enough to interact with my sons' care teams but lost all semblance of professionalism when neither my legal expertise search for a medical miracle nor tenacity of my love was able to bring benefit to Jonah. He lingered in a coma for three months before dying in hospice. I was left to find a way to carry on for the sake of Jonah's brothers while handling my own grief and helplessness.</p><p></p><p>Immersing myself in Jonah's journals and memories of his extraordinary spirit-filled life my pillars of support materialized--meditation yoga prayer and sailing. With Jonah as my spirit guide in the bard and beyond I navigated pathways between terror and beauty that Jonah had spent his life seeking. Pine Melody is the result of my journey. </p>